The Spiral Principle
by Blayze

Have you ever danced a wheel, woven a web or explored a labyrinth? Have you ever inscribed a pentagram, sat inside an Akashic egg or joined the Sephira with a lightning bolt? These shapes not only have meaning on physical and magical levels, they can also stand as metaphors for how we approach the journey along our spiritual paths.

From the simplicity of a Circle to the complexity of the Tree Of Life, we enrich our spirituality with shapes and patterns. They are the symbols we scry for, the keys to unlocking mystery and the representation of our own cosmologies. These shapes and patterns exist and are understood on many levels. Their use and interpretation can change from person to person, path to path and even from era to era.

One shape beloved of many pagans is the Spiral. Again, it can be used and interpreted in many ways, it can be drawn, inscribed, carved and danced, it can symbolise whirlpools in a sacred river, a snake or the unknown path of the stars in the sky. To me, the spiral is symbolic of a journey of learning and inspiration, of movement from this world to another, of going “…there and back again” with a new perspective.   

Think of the common pagan practice of the Spiral Dance. Do we use it just to raise energy, to move between worlds, as a spiritual quest or as a bit of fun exercise? 

When we dance the Spiral, we actually begin with a circle, we explore and experience the cycles around us and within us, each turn brings a new insight, a new harmony if you will. Then we break away from the comfortable form, we begin to move towards the Otherworld. We are still making that circular movement, still experiencing the cycles, but the Spiral becomes tighter with each new turn. We become more focused as we are forced to concentrate on the forward motion. As we journey we glimpse the layers that are forming as we weave past the tail of our serpent. Previous journeys are acknowledged but the force of the Spiral pushes us ever forward.

The Spiral becomes tighter and tighter and our focus shifts again until we reach the centre and what we thought was our goal. But the Spiral never ends… and as we whirl around we find ourselves moving in the opposite direction. We have entered the Otherworld and a new perspective is gained as our awareness expands along with the ever expanding rings of the dance. Again we weave past our former selves, but this time we see our journey with another eye. We see from the perspective of one who has entered the Otherworld and dances within its boundaries.

The rings of the Spiral expand until the dance returns to a circular form once more. Hands are joined and the boundary completes. Outward facing we can rest awhile and observe that which lies outside ourselves. As we dance the Circle once more we can add the experience of the Otherworld to how we react to our environment. The land outside our small circle of knowledge is different now. Can you see the changes, or is it only we who have changed?

So we assimilate this new view and the Spiral begins to wind inward again, we focus once more as we move towards the centre in smaller and smaller rings, we narrow our view once more to gain  the Mystery that the Otherworld reveals to us. Once more to the Centre we dance, face to face, passing that which we have learned, remembering it. 

At the Centre we experience a brief union of understanding, we have seen the Otherworld from the inside and the out, but before we can truly know the Mystery, the dance whirls us in a new direction and we head back to our own realm. Once more the rings expand as our awareness encompasses the whole, the light and the dark, the beginning without end, the world and the hidden worlds. We pass our former selves for the final time and then, joining hands, we leave the Otherworld behind. Facing inwards and dancing the Circle, we too dance the cycle of life that is contained within our own journeys. 

Try laying your own spiritual journey along the Spiral Path. Have you journeyed within the Otherworld and returned? Have you truly looked at yourself as you weave your way to the Centre? Have you gazed boldly within and without as well as above and below? Do you try to recognise and experience the layers, twists and turns of your path?

The Spiral can leave us somewhat breathless, somewhat empowered and somewhat changed…. but then again, isn’t that what a journey is all about?